Project details

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CP - Collaborative project (generic)

Objective

CADMAD aims to make a foundational breakthrough in the way computers and computer-aided design and manufacturing is employed in DNA-based research and development, making a radically new use of information technologies in biology and biotechnology.Biology and biotechnology research involves "DNA programming", which is akin to computer programming. Researchers modify and combine DNA of interest in a programmatic way to uncover its function, to improve its function, or to create new functions. Whereas the composition and editing of computer programs is as easy as using a word-processor, the design, construction and editing of DNA in a programmatic fashion is still a slow, expensive, labour-intensive wet-lab process.CADMAD's vision is to replace the labour-intensive DNA processing carried out today by tens of thousands of skilled wet-lab workers around the world, by high-throughput computer-aided design and manufacturing of DNA, which would be fundamentally more efficient than plain de novo DNA synthesis by effectively reusing existing DNA. Computed-aided design and manufacturing of semiconductor chips has enabled the computer revolution, the Internet revolution, and the mobile phone revolution. Computer-aided design and manufacturing of DNA may similarly enable a revolution in biology and biotechnology, in which high-throughput computer-aided and robotically executed experiments replace manual wet-lab work, resulting in accelerated progress in key areas of research and development.